Yemen’s crisis deepens as coronavirus devastates health system

The UN has warned that millions of Yemeni children are at risk of starvation because of “huge” shortfalls in humanitarian funding at a time that the coronavirus pandemic has caused the near total collapse of the war-ravaged Arab state’s health system.

Unicef, the UN children's agency, fears that about 6,600 children could die over the next six months from preventable diseases and malnutrition because of the dire state of healthcare, a lack of water and soap and the inability of aid workers to provide assistance because they do not have sufficient funding.

"We are trying to prevent the health and water systems collapsing, and we were holding those pieces together. Now we are on the brink of collapse," said Sara Beysolow Nyanti, Unicef's representative for Yemen. "Covid could be the tipping point. Right now 75 per cent of communities cannot afford to buy soap, and if they do have the money, the choice will be to buy something they can eat or medicine."

She said 30,000 children could develop life-threatening, severe acute malnutrition in the second half of this year, with the total number of malnourished under-fives rising to 2.4 million – half of that age group in the country.

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Yemen was already facing what the UN described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis before the first case of Covid-19 was confirmed in April, with about 14 million people – half the population – at risk of famine.

About half the impoverished country’s health facilities were not working even before Covid-19. Now most of those that are functioning are dedicated to treating coronavirus cases with negligible resources, while treatment for other diseases has all but halted, aid workers said.

The situation has been exacerbated by health workers’ and people’s fears about the disease and a lack of equipment. In the populous north, Houthi rebels are not reporting Covid-19 cases and have been repeatedly accused of restricting access to aid workers and the distribution of assistance.

Disinformation

There have been 1,076 confirmed coronavirus cases in Yemen, with 288 deaths, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University. That means the death rate of confirmed incidents is about 27 per cent – about five times the global average. Such a high figure usually indicates an absence of testing.

Aid workers said many Yemenis were fearful of going to hospitals because of disinformation about the disease and the reaction of the authorities. When they did go to a health facility, it was often too late and they died within days.

“The Covid pandemic has completely destabilised the whole health system,” said an aid worker in Yemen. “The situation is really worrisome. We don’t know what’s happening in the communities.”

Donors pledged $1.35 billion (€1.2 billion) for humanitarian assistance for Yemen this month, but that was less than half of what was required, the UN said. It has warned it lacks the funds to provide payments to health workers and that water and sanitation programmes that serve four million people will start closing in weeks. By August, the UN could have to shut malnutrition programmes.

Lise Grande, the UN's top official in Yemen, said the organisation had been forced to reduce parts of its programmes for the past four more months and was now having to cut core elements, including health, sanitation and water, which would have "life and death consequences".

“People will start dying in the next days because of this,” she said.

Yemen has been in crisis since a civil war erupted in 2015. The conflict morphed into a proxy war after Saudi Arabia led an Arab coalition to fight the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels. Riyadh announced a unilateral ceasefire in April, citing the coronavirus pandemic, but fighting has continued.

“Yemen has been the forgotten crisis and we can’t afford to let that continue,” said Ms Beysolow Nyanti. “Beyond the bombs, the bullets and the bombardment, children have no reason to want to wake up in the morning. It’s that bad.” – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2020